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The GHGT-13 plenary session on Wednesday 16th November opened with an upbeat assessment of the Quest CO 2 storage demonstration site in the Canadian province of Alberta. Tim Wiwchar, who is Shell Canada's Portfolio Manager Heavy Oil, presented a summary of the progress since this flagship project started operating in November 2015. Quest was built ...

 CO 2 storage relies on the injection of the gas either via pre-existing wellbores or, in the future, new wells. CO 2 is potentially corrosive and in certain conditions can induce rapid cooling. Both conditions are detrimental to wellbores so it's important to understand how these conditions occur and what mitigation options are available. The...

  As I spoke to open GHGT-13 today COP22 is underway in Marrakech. It is worth reflecting on the historic agreement that was made at the preceding COP21 meeting held in Paris last year. Paris set us the added aspiration of a new global temperature target of below 20C, even though we are working towards a 2 0 C target. We know very well that ev...

The 50th bi-annual IEAGHG ExCo meeting has come to a close in the beautiful Swiss city of Lausanne. The two day IEAGHG Executive Committee meeting began on Saturday 12th November and was held in the excellent Hôtel de la Paix. This regular meeting is held twice yearly, at different locations across the world each time, and gives IEAGHG an opportuni...

  The Swiss are making an important commitment to long-term CO 2 storage through international collaboration and research. This is notably evident at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory situated in the Jura Mountains about two hours drive north of Lausanne. This facility has been deliberately constructed within an impermeable shale called the Opali...

 The geomechanics session at GHGT-13 in Lausanne has covered a variety of topics including the value of studying natural analogues. Useful insights into CO 2 migration within formations can be gained especially where fractures provide natural conduits for geochemical alteration. Exposures of the Jurassic Entrada formation in Utah provide an ex...

COP-22 got underway in Marrakesh in unseasonable heavy rain. Several thousand delegates are gathering at the tented city that is the conference centre for the work to start developing the implementation details of the Paris Agreement, in terms of frameworks, processes and mechanisms. Negotiations commenced under SBSTA on the Technology Framework in...

The Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) set up in 2003 is the implementing arm of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Technology Mechanism. The CTCN, promotes the accelerated development and transfer of climate technologies for energy-efficient, low-carbon and climate-resilient development. On November 4th 2016 the CT...

Fault zones are widely recognised as being important to the secure long term storage of CO 2 as they could provide a leakage pathway out of the target reservoir. Fault characterisation within reservoirs, especially where they extend into caprock, and other overlying formations, needs to be thoroughly understood as part of any risk assessment for CO...

  It is important for power plants to be able to operate flexibly to respond to changes in consumer demand for electricity. Flexibility is also becoming increasingly important due to the greater use of other low carbon generation technologies, particularly variable renewable generators. The issue of operating flexibility of power plants with c...

  The use of CO 2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a well established commercial practice in the United States where it has been used for over 40 years. There is widespread potential for CO 2 -EOR in other mature petroleum producing regions. If CO 2 -EOR could be implemented it would offer an economic stimulus to develop CO 2 storage. There ...

  During the CSLF week of meetings in Tokyo, the Japanese hosts RITE and JCCS Company arranged for a day visit to the Tomakomai project on the northern island of Hokkaido. This project is capturing CO 2 from a gas stream from the hydrogen production unit at the Tomakomai refinery using a unique two-stage pressure swing absorption system, and i...

The Paris Agreement has now entered into force. To date 74 countries have joined the agreement, 55 were needed. These countries represent 58.83% of global greenhouse emissions, breaking the required 55% threshold. That was the easy bit, now the hard work starts, there a big hill to climb to get to below 2 degree C temperature rise.

  In a recently published paper called "The Truth about Climate Change", a group of climate scientists tell us that, "By 2015, the global temperature had risen by 1°C above pre-industrial levels, that it is certain to rise another half a degree by 2030 and will continue to rise to 2°C by 2050 unless drastic action is taken to reduce emissions"...

  According to the UNFCCC as of today (23rd September 2016) 62 countries representing 49.3% of global CO 2 emissions have now ratified the Paris Agreement. To enter into force the agreement needs 50 countries representing 55% of global emissions to sign. So milestone one has been passed and milestone 2 is close to being achieved. At a single e...

  The Montreal Protocol is expected in October 2016 to agree an amendment to phase down HFC emissions. Ahead of that decision the US Government has this week hosted a meeting with over 100 delegates who called for securing an ambitious amendment with an "early freeze date". The freeze date is the year when countries stop increasing the product...

  At the G20 meeting in Japan China and the USA have both announced their intention to ratify the Paris Agreement. This means that he two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases have committed themselves to the principle of moving to a temperature target of below 2 degrees centigrade. Both countries have now formally lodged their instruments of r...

  New research led by Australian scientists, and recently published in the journal Nature suggests human impacts had begun to change the climate as back as the 1830's, earlier than previously expected. Their conclusions were based on natural records of climate variation in the world's oceans and continents, including those found in corals, ice...

  The US DOE's annual Carbon Storage R&D Project Review Meeting was held in Pittsburgh this week. These meetings present all the current DOE funded research and development projects in CO 2 storage, and are impressive gatherings of US research activity. This year it was combined with the DOE's oil and natural gas technologies research revi...

  The Faraday Discussion on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) took place 18-20th July in Sheffield, UK. This unique meeting format (more on this in a moment) was organised by the Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and supported by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). The scientific committee consisted of Paul Fe...